Alert: Your thread was moved to a different forum.

After having seen a good discussion last weekend I got this "Alert" when logging in:
Your thread The Merits of Social Media in this Pandemic was moved to a different forum.
Yesterday at 8:54 PM

This thread has been in the Off-Topic forum. Where has it been moved to? No reason was given.

Members have shared their views and thoughts in messages that took them time and effort.

This is not the first time, that whole threads were removed after misbehavior of a few and well known members shouting "Nuke the whole thing!" I do not know what was going on in MY thread after weekend. Possibly an action was necessary from a moderator.

I want to address this kind of moderation as not appropriate. If single posts do not meet the forum rules these posts have to be removed - period.

BUT, removing complete threads is not respectful to those members who were not colliding with any forum rules. It is by no means acceptable that those feel punished who met the rules with their writings, while others feel good by having destroyed other peoples thoughts and views.

Moderators might feel being like a god when executing their powers. It might just be that the wrong people get scared away.

Feedback, please!
 
Do what I do: If you like to keep in touch and have a discussion with someone or a group of people, on any topic and in any kind of social media such as Forums, exchange your email addresses with each others. Internet as a whole willingly or unwillingly, for better or worse, is following the china model of communications and social interactions. Very soon, we merely have to rely on encrypted email to keep in touch and having discussion with each other.
 
Regarding Forums moderators: Forums has rules and guidelines. Moderators have normative rules and also restrictive responsibility regarding of posts. They have every right to do whatever they want to do with posts and member. I don't like the restrictive codes and rules. I'm with you. But rules are rules. Without them we're heading to the jungle.
 
They have every right to do whatever they want to do with posts and member.
With all respects no. That would be Stalinism and the like. If the FreeBSD Forums were moderated like this, I'd leave.

The forum rules must be respected, as I have said before. But it is not appropriate to erase posts that are well in line with the rules.
I do know well the game that is going on behind the scenes played by a few. They know how to provoke and they know that mods tend to erase whole threads when keep on misbehaving.

Instead of kicking those in the ass who misbehave the writing of others get erased. The mods are playing the game of the provocateurs when "nuking the whole thing".

EDIT: Noticed your editing vigole. Thanks for that.
 
After having seen a good discussion last weekend I got this "Alert" when logging in:


This thread has been in the Off-Topic forum. Where has it been moved to? No reason was given.

Members have shared their views and thoughts in messages that took them time and effort. At least one member seemed to use this thread for keeping connected with others while living alone.

This is not the first time, that whole threads were removed after misbehavior of a few and well known members shouting "Nuke the whole thing!" I do not know what was going on in MY thread after weekend. Possibly an action was necessary from a moderator.

I want to address this kind of moderation as not appropriate. If single posts do not meet the forum rules these posts have to be removed - period.

BUT, removing complete threads is not respectful to those members who were not colliding with any forum rules. It is by no means acceptable that those feel punished who met the rules with their writings, while others feel good by having destroyed other peoples thoughts and views.

Moderators might feel being like a god when executing their powers. It might just be that the wrong people get scared away.

Feedback, please!
Perhaps the topic got too controversial?

There seems to be no rhyme or reason behind the deletion of threads. Perhaps the moderators converse and decide the topic is getting too heated, too critical of FreeBSD (or the foundation), etc?

I agree with your original proposition, that perhaps even if the thread is nuked a reason is given for why.

Sometimes I suspect a lot of deletions are to protect FreeBSD's image... but then again without feedback one can only suspect.

(Best take a snapshot of this thread, it will disappear later. :sssh:)
 
After reading about 2/3 (?) of that thread, I posted two or three very clear-opinioned contributions, contrasting another member's opinion -- with moderate aggressiveness, I have to add. When I tried to access the thread later, I got this page:
Oops! We ran into some problems.
You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action.
So now I'd like to know if all others get the same content, or if the thread has been moved to another place with restricted access. Also, I'd like to get informed about the specific reasons for such drastic measures.
I will give my e-mail on request via my profile. Unfortunately this whole encryption thingy is still so GUI-resistent that I can not sign my e-mail with my public key. But I have one, so I can encrypt if needed. Whereas this is something I do not want to do generally: because I believe in the importance of expressing a clear point of view in public & non-anonymously -- hence you can see my real face slightly pixel'ed here.
 
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I'd like to know if all others get the same content
Yes, we did.
f the thread has been moved to another place
I'm not familiar with XenForo CMS, but I think there's a trash and/or archive folder for moderators/admin. Hence I conclude it's in trash folder now!
this whole encryption thingy is still so GUI-resistent
Yes, email encryption is a problem. There were some successful! efforts e.g. S/MIME, PGP/GPG, but the whole thing went standby after trending Messengers(IM).
People don't like to think and then talk. They tend to rant, then accuse others of things they have done. Hence they love social media and messengers.
Using email demands just a little mental process, a lot more than DM, PM, comments, etc.
I believe in the importance of expressing a clear point of view in public
I can NOT prove it, but I have strong faith that majority of people hate freedom of speech, public and private.
I will give my e-mail on request via my profile
That's very kind of you. I've recently (RE)started to learn German Language. I need some book suggestion (mathematics related), sometime in future.
 
vigole You can guess from my posts that I'm able & like to communicate with people all over the world in english. My vocabulary is restricted, though. But with the assistance of an online dictionary or book it's ok IMHO. EDIT misunderstanding on both sides ;)

I wrote this e-mail to the moderators:
Dear moderators,

four other forum users and me are concerned about what happened to that thread
This is expressed in the thread alert-your-thread-was-moved-to-a-different-forum.76541/ under "Feedback".

I'd like to kindly ask you
1. whether the thread has bee moved or deleted or closed
2. if it has been moved, where is it now
3. if access has been restricted, and if so, to whom
4. most importantly, the concrete and specific reasons for such drastic measures.

Thanks in advance, with kind regards
"Walter von Entferndt"
--
=|o) "Stell' Dir vor es geht und keiner kriegt's hin." (Wolfgang Neuss)
 
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You can guess from my posts that I'm able & like to communicate with people all over the world in english
I hope my point wasn't vague. Non of my words was targeted at you, or any other writers in this thread. I just wanted to make sure, that there's no misunderstanding.
 
My vocabulary is restricted, though. But with the assistance of an online dictionary or book it's ok IMHO.
I always have three books on my desk (dictionary, grammar, speaking), constantly checking with them, still my posts are grammar bug reports!
 
This thread has been in the Off-Topic forum. Where has it been moved to? No reason was given.
It was moved to a section that's off limits to everyone. I moved it because of some utterly horrible remarks. When moving threads there's no option to provide a reason as you can with deleting them. Deleted threads are difficult to restore, moving them to an offlimits section keeps the whole thread intact making it easier to restore.

I want to address this kind of moderation as not appropriate. If single posts do not meet the forum rules these posts have to be removed - period.
Noted. I'm only human, I make mistakes like everyone else.

With all respects no. That would be Stalinism and the like. If the FreeBSD Forums were moderated like this, I'd leave.
vigole is correct though. We have every right to remove any thread, post or member, and do not have to provide a reason.

I wrote this e-mail to the moderators:
Did you actually sent it? No email was received.

I've restored the thread. It was a knee-jerk reaction on my part. I apologize for that.
 
Personally, I thought the thread was dancing along that line of going too far--some posts did. Kudos to everyone for that but I was surprised it lasted at all.
 
.......
I've restored the thread. It was a knee-jerk reaction on my part. I apologize for that.
Reading the last few messages of the thread, I think your knee-jerk reaction was actually valid. It's a pity the software is not more flexible where you can preserve the thread and just censor/delete inappropriate comments.
 
It was moved to a section that's off limits to everyone. I moved it because of some utterly horrible remarks. [...]
Since the last post I see now is mine, I have to honestly & seriously reflect if you mean me. I used the terms "ridiculous" & "nonsense" where I found these appropriate. Since I did not receive any comment, neither in the thread nor via my profile or e-mail (the moderators have it), I can guess this was at the edge but still ok?
Did you actually sent it? No email was received.
Yes, it's in the Sent box of my e-mail provider. If it wasn't sent, it would be in the Outgoing queue.
I've restored the thread. It was a knee-jerk reaction on my part. I apologize for that.
Reading the last few messages of the thread, I think your knee-jerk reaction was actually valid. It's a pity the software is not more flexible where you can preserve the thread and just censor/delete inappropriate comments.
But there are missing some posts after the last one that can be seen now, IIRC? Did you delete them? That is ok, it's part of your job. But as said above, IMHO a note like "N posts deleted by moderator enforcing forum rule #X" would be appropriate (w/o telling whose posts are affected). Silent deletion is the bad type of censorship that we do not like, because it opens the door to arbitrariness (despotism in the worst case). In contrast, reasonable fair moderation includes, well, telling a reason.
 
Since the last post I see now is mine, I have to honestly & seriously reflect if you mean me.
No, your posts were actually the most on point. Strongly worded perhaps, but that's fine by me. There was a post right after that, which has since been deleted.

But there are missing some posts after the last one that can be seen now, IIRC? Did you delete them?
Yes, some posts were deleted.

But as said above, IMHO a note like "N posts deleted by moderator enforcing forum rule #X" would be appropriate (w/o telling whose posts are affected).
Doesn't that show up? It's sometimes difficult to tell if the things I can see in the forums are visible to others, I see a "Deleted by ... Date ... Reason ..." where the post used to be. In any case, if a post is deleted I provide a reason why it was deleted. At the very least the poster gets a notification of that. Except for things like spam. I'm sure I don't have to explain that.
 
Silent deletion is the bad type of censorship that we do not like, because it opens the door to arbitrariness (despotism in the worst case). In contrast, reasonable fair moderation includes, well, telling a reason.
I strongly do advocate this. Without any clue suspicions and speculations arise. Possibly false ones, which is toxic for any community.

I'm very well aware that every extra effort mounts to the workload of the moderators. But in such cases clarification contributes to a better understanding and acceptance why a moderation had to be done.

I'm quite sure the call for an explained moderation in such cases is being heard by the mods. And I think it is here a good time and the right place to say:

Thank you moderators. You are doing a great job, and you have shown that you are able and willing to review decisions made.

I feel that is impressive and it shows nobility.
 
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